360 Degree Feedback. IT Industry Could Learn from Uber

An FB post from Feb 2018

Uber, a taxi services company is far superior to any software firm/scum. (Look how well they rhyme.) 

A few days ago I received an email from Uber intimating me that my rating was 3.5 out of 5. 

Curious, I read on. 

Just like customers were allowed to rate drivers, drivers were allowed to rate customers. 

The messaging was so subtle. 

'it may be the small things like the way you close the door, or slam the door unthinkingly, polite treatment of the driver, etc. Higher your rating, slower the wait time for a future ride ... And so on. 

This is 360 degree feedback in the true sense. 

Ratings from both customer and driver accepted, no questions asked. 

The underlying principle is, the rating may be based on reality or perception. 

If it is reality, make corrections where needed. 

If it is perception, then do what it takes to change the perception.

Most of the software firms don't have 360 degree appraisal. Meaning, mangers get to evaluate their team members but team members don't get to rate their managers. 

Even where there is 360 degree feedback, it is a sham. Mostly. 

Most of the managers get away with the help of their 'connections', having acquired them over a number of years they have spent in the firm.

To understand why you should be allowed to rate your managers, you must know two bits about these managers. 

Most of the managers, at least in the services industry, became managers because they couldn't become anything else. Most of them. 

If they were excellent in technology, they would have become tech leads and then architects. 

If they were good at analysis and understood businesses and processes, they would have become business analysts and consultants. 

Since there was nothing they excelled in, and spoke poor to okay English, they became managers - supervisors. All you do then is to learn how to use a few tools and remind other people to do their work, while you... 

(mis)Manage, demand subordination, play politics, engage in power struggle, favouritism, pass the buck, cheat the client, show delinquency in establishing processes, discredit performers, misogyny, tight fisted during appraisals... 

Their nuisance is unending. 

Like I said, a taxi service business is better than software scum.